Troy: Fall of a City flops as just 1.6m tune in to BBC’s £16million bonkbuster

The BBC's £16 million bonkbuster Troy: Fall of a City has lost out to ITV's The Voice in the Saturday night ratings war, despite attempting to thrill viewers with an inter-racial threesome

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By Lucy Jones, Bizarre reporter

12th March 2018, 2:05 am

Updated: 12th March 2018, 4:12 am

THE BBC’s £16 million bonkbuster Troy: Fall of a City has been branded a massive waste of cash after pulling in an audience of just 1.6m viewers.

The Saturday night prime-time drama, which follows the steamy love affair between Paris and Helen during the Trojan War, has seen overnight ratings tumble from an average of 3.2million in episode one to just 1.6m in episode four.

BBC

Viewers of Troy: Fall of a City have branded the latest episode as 'boring beyond belief' and 'ridiculous'

One TV insider said: “Everyone thought Troy would be a huge hit – especially given the amount of money that the BBC pumped into it.

“But ratings have been bleak and the fact so many people have turned off is very telling.

“It’s pretty embarrassing for everyone involved given BBC producers made the decision to place it in the primetime Saturday night slot at 9pm which is used to seeing ratings of well over five million.”

Rex Features

Episode four of Troy: Fall of a City lost out to ITV’s The Voice which drew 4.9million viewers

Tory MP Andrew Bridgen, 53, said: “The BBC does not have to worry about the commercial viability of its programming or the programmes it commissions because it knows it is funded by £4billion a year of taxpayer’s money through the mandatory license fee and does not have to operate in the real commercial world unfortunately.”